Mandy Mercier’s third album rocks harder than anything she’s done before, but it doesn’t forget to roll, either; it’s as close as she’s come to sounding “commercial,” if such a term can apply to a DIY effort.
As co-produced by the Austin singer-songwriter with John Harvey, Wild Dreams Of The Shy Boys is an exemplary disc of rootsy folk-rock that also bears the unmistakable stamp of guitarist-and-more Gurf Morlix. Mercier’s husky voice and her boundless energy and emotion propel the mini-dramas in these songs; it’s an instrument fit for the blues (such as her reading of John Lee Hooker’s “Worry My Life”) as much as for country. Her clipped phrasing gives rockers such as the opening “Already Fallin’” real urgency, while ballads such as the bottom-heavy “Anything Less” and “See It Now” simmer with anxiety, sorrow and resolve.
Morlix provides an appropriately spacey solo on “Make It Back To Midnight”, while Ian McLagan’s burbling, swirling Hammond organ and Mercier’s own fiddle color the set. The guitars on “No Foolin’ The Cards” alternately ring and rumble, while the moral outrage on topical songs such as “Homeless” is palpable.
Except for the Hooker tune and her version of Lowell George’s “Willin’”, reprised from a 1998 compilation album, the songs are all Mercier originals. The title track, with its traditional/contemporary imagery, is a fitting closer to an album that is confident and even a little reckless, tuneful and deeply felt. Mercier often gets lost in the shuffle of Austin singer-songwriters, but few of them can match her evocative songwriting and gutsy performances.
